§ Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the Government have considered the Nature Conservancy Council working group review of criteria for wildfowling bans in severe weather; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe Government have accepted the recommendations of the Nature Conservancy Council working group to review the criteria and arrangements for shooting bans in severe weather, and will implement the proposals which require Government action. I am encouraged that it has proved possible for all the group, which included representatives from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the British Field Sports Society, the British Trust for Ornithology, the Game Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy Council, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the University of Durham and the Wildfowl Trust, to reach agreement on such a difficult subject.
The report calls for the decision on an order banning shooting to be made after 13 days of continuing frost as recorded by more than half of 13 selected meteorological stations and for the ban to come into effect on the fifteenth day. It will apply to all birds listed on schedule 2, part I, to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, except the capercaillie—as its food supply is not affected by hard weather—and it will not be lifted until there has been at least seven days without frost.
With regard to publicity, we intend to advertise any ban in the classified columns of the appropriate national press and have given interested organisations details of the arrangements to publicise as they wish. In addition, we shall again issue a press notice and we will offer service announcements to the BBC's studio 4 and provide tapes for use on local and commercial radio.